All polymer‐based transparent composites for electrothermal actuator and supercapacitor

Abstract

With the rapid development of smart devices, multifunctional integrated systems are greatly developed. Although several multifunctional devices integrated with functions of actuation, sensing, and energy storage have been successfully fabricated, most of these integrated multifunctional systems are opaque. Here, all polymer‐based transparent composites are proposed for the electrothermal actuator, supercapacitor, and intelligent integrated electronic system. The transmittances of the polyaniline@poly(3, 4‐ethylene dioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate)/polyethylene terephthalate/polyethylene hierarchical composites with transmittance over 40% are prepared by the facile method of in‐situ polymerization and “cut‐paste” process, which can be directly used as transparent actuators as well as electrodes for transparent supercapacitors. The transparent actuator exhibits large bending deformation (>0.8 cm−1) and long‐term repeatability under electrical stimulation. Also, the transparent supercapacitor presents a high areal capacitance of 9.9 mF cm−2 and excellent cycling stability. Due to the above advantages, a series of practical applications are designed, such as biomimetic transparent grippers, flexible supercapacitor arrays, and so forth. Finally, an intelligent integrated electronic system with intelligent electrical‐controlled switches and supercapacitor arrays is successfully constructed to demonstrate the practical application of functional polymer film in smart devices.

Multifunctional actuators integrated with the function of self-powered temperature sensing made with Ti3C2Tx–bamboo nanofiber composites

“…53 Therefore, the CTE of the Ti 3 C 2 T x –bamboo nanofiber composites is also small. According to the TIMOSHENKO bilayer theory, 54 a bilayer thermal actuator can be constructed by tightly attaching the Ti 3 C 2 T x –bamboo nanofiber composites to polymer films with large CTEs. The preparation method of the thermal actuators based on Ti 3 C 2 T x –bamboo nanofiber composites is summarized as follows.…”

Recent Advances in Electrically Driven Soft Actuators across Dimensional Scales from 2D to 3D

“…Based on this deformation mechanism, an electrical electrode as a heater can be integrated in the actuator [55,56] or one deformation layer with better conductivity can also act as the heater [57,58] to create the thermal expansion-based soft actuators. [59][60][61][62][63] The heating electrodes of the soft actuators also need to be flexible with very low deformation stress, for the purpose of producing a minimum degree of stress resistance to the deformation of the actuator. To realize the electrical heating electrode with excellent flexibility, thin-film electrodes with a special structure design can be introduced.…”

“…Based on this deformation mechanism, an electrical electrode as a heater can be integrated in the actuator [ 55,56 ] or one deformation layer with better conductivity can also act as the heater [ 57,58 ] to create the thermal expansion‐based soft actuators. [ 59–63 ]…”